The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-01-19

ticed.
The next morning NJ. Sasson failed to
call for his valet as usual. After waiting
for some time, according to the Wallets
statement. he went to his masters apart
ment and found him lying in bed with q
bullet hole in his head. On the coverlet
lay bis revolver. His watch and purse
were missing. His wardrobe had been
ransacked and his escritoire broken open.
There was no doubt that the assassin had
been at work.
The Judge Of Instruction and his Of
ficers investigated the case and arrived
at the conclusion that murder and rob-
berry had been done.
The valet told what he knew about the
family troubles and the fact of Nine.
Sasson and her ch ldren having left their
home the previous day on account of
what had passed between monsieur and
his wife and son. Then the valet re-
lated the incident of the revolver.
But how had any one entered the
house? Jean Chauban, the valet, testi-
fed that early in the morning, as he was
taking the milk at the garden floor, he
observed that the side door of the house
was a;ar, and going in that way closed
it after him. The garden was high, but
an expert climber could easily scale it on
either side.
The gendarmes on duty near by testi-
fed that between 10 and II o'clock the
previous night he saw q cab standing
within few hundred feet of the house.
He spoke with the driver. who said:
"A very comely wcman has just dis
appeared by the side of that house"
The cabman was easily found Dy the
police. Did he know the lady? No.
Where did he take her up2 On the cor
ncr of the Rue de Morny and the Fau-
bourg st. Honore. Nine. Sasson's sister
resid d on the Rue de Morny near the
Rue dc Pontheu. 1t was very painful
conc usion to reach, but there was no
avoiding it-Mme. Sasson had assas-
sinated her husband and the missing ar.
ticlcs were taken merely to turn aside
suspicion. She had lived unhappily with
him; he had determined to reduce
his establ 'shment; he had struck her!
ALI these facts were testified to by domes-
tics. Then came the episode of the pis-
tol, narrated by the valet. and the fur
ther fact, admitted by Nine. SEASONS
maid when she was cleverly captured on
the street and removed to the office of
the Judge of Instruction. that Nine. Sas-
son had key to the garden and the side
door of the house, and that she had been
absent from her sisters house for two
hours between $3.50 and 11:30 the night
of o tobcr p.
Everything Icing thus clear, Nine.
Sasson was arrested and charged with
the crime of murder. Nine. Sasson de-
MED the accusation and told the story
as the reader has it before him, emitting
the episode of the pistol.
"Do you remember going to the bureau
in the library before you left the house
October 22?" the Judge of Instruction
asked her.
"Yes, | do"
sYou took a revolver out of the
bureau, and you haven't mentioned the
fact"
II did; but refrained from saying
about it because I did not wish
to have to say that I was afraid my hus-
band might shoot one or the other OF
u.s."
'What did you do with the pistol2'
s.I put it behind vase on the mantcl-
piece in my husbands apartment, in
tending to remove it. but forgot it. "
In consultation afterward the Judge
said to Coupe, detective:
"This woman does not talk nor look
like gui ty person. If she is not guilty
-and, mark you, she has just the sum
of money she says she went for to her
boudoir, and the missing watch has not
been found near her or about her-lf she
is not the assassin, how came the muir
dcrer to find the pistol hidden behind
the vase? You have seen the vase, and
know lust how and where she laid it. Is
it possible that any one whom Nine. Sas-
son left behind her did the decd?'
This suggestion put the detective on
line Of inquiry, and he pursued it with
vigor, but found no clcw. Nine. Sasson
was convicted of the killing of her hus-
band and sentenced to fifteen years I'M
prsonment.
Jean Chauban, the former valet of NJ.
S,sson, assumed the name of Roumaine
and opened wineshop in the Rue Greusc,
near the Bois de Boulogne. Six months
after Nine. Seasons conviction, in the
spring of 1866. Detective Coupe was
looking for wandering swindlcr who
had cheated several charitable ladies in
the suburbs of the city. In his wander
ings Coupe dropped into the wincshop OF
Jean Roumaine, and was soon on friendly
terms with that gentleman; for he i'm
medately identified him, elaborately
transformed as he was, as NJ. Sasson's
former valet, whom he had watched for
q month, in various disguiscs. to see
whether he could connect him with the
crime of October 22d.
NJ. Roumaine had splendid gold chain
on his vest, and Coupe asked him the
time. He pulled out the elegant repeater,
which Coupe had no hesitation in saying
exactly answered the description of the
watch stolen from NJ. Sasspn when he
was murdered.
"a fine watch" said the officer.
ssYesAa present from dead friend"
answered Roumaine.
"Ah, very precious, no doubt" said
the officer.
ga sad remembrance" was the reply,
with an as ,umed look OF sorrow.
81 once knew a gentleman who had a
watch just like that" said the detective,
'and, strange to say, he is dead also"
"a coincidence" said the valet.
"Won't monsieur drink"
"Thanks." was the reply. "It is a
strange coincidence, and, would you b.
lieve it, my friend was murdered. Why,